Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
Our research is aimed at understanding the lethality of opioid drugs such as heroin, methadone and fentanyl in opioid overdose and how their lethality (through depression of respiration) can be enhanced by other drugs such as alcohol and gabapentinoids.
Prolonged use of opioids results in the development of tolerance whereby the effect of the drug (euphoria or respiratory depression) is reduced and more drug must be taken to induce the original level of effect. We have demonstrated that the mechanisms underlying tolerance may be different for different opioids and that alcohol and gabapentinoids lower heroin but not methadone tolerance.
We use a reverse translational approach whereby we interview heroin users to find out their views on the dangers of opioid overdose and how that may be altered by other drugs. We then perform controlled laboratory experiments to examine the cellular mechanisms underlying such interactions.
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Network
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Opioid overdose deaths: Understanding the lethal interactions between benzodiazepines and opioids to develop new harm reduction strategies
1/07/22 → 30/06/25
Project: Research, Parent
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Fentanyl Overdose Deaths: Under - Collaboration Agreement - University of Nottingham
1/04/19 → 31/12/21
Project: Research
Research output
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Changes in the development of opioid tolerance on re-exposure among people who use heroin: a qualitative study: Opioid tolerance on re-exposure
Kesten, J., Holder, E., Ayres, R., Ellis, P., Taylor, S., Hickman, M. & Henderson, G., 20 May 2022, (Accepted/In press) In: PLoS ONE.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
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Commentary on Andersen et al. Time for drug checking for heroin users?
Scott, J. & Henderson, G., 1 Nov 2021, In: Addiction. 116, 11, p. 3113-3114 2 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
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The anomalous pharmacology of fentanyl
Kelly, E., Sutcliffe, K., Cavallo, D., Ramos-Gonzalez, N., Alhosan, N. & Henderson, G., 2 Jul 2021, (E-pub ahead of print) In: British Journal of Pharmacology.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
5 Citations (Scopus)
Datasets
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Tolerance study
Kesten, J. (Contributor) & Henderson, G. (Creator), University of Bristol, 23 Aug 2021
DOI: 10.5523/bris.23rgdwwmdtix52gqa51ith8gxy, http://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/23rgdwwmdtix52gqa51ith8gxy
Dataset
Activities
- 2 Editorial activity
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Neuropharmacology (Journal)
Graeme Henderson (Editor)
1993Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity
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Neuropharmacology (Journal)
Graeme Henderson (Editor)
1992Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity